Daisie Thirlwall Scholarship in Violin
Daisie Thirlwall (1894 - 1983)
Daisie Thirlwall loved music, and spent many years of her life involved in various activities in support of the Victoria Symphony and the Victoria Musical Arts Society. Students in the Faculty of Music at the University of Victoria now benefit from her generosity, through annual scholarships.
Daisie was born in Victoria, and was actively involved in the community in many ways. During World War II, she was chair of the Christian Science War Relief Committee, which organized relief supplies for troops and civilians in Europe. This work included organizing knitting bees, where volunteers made items such as layettes, which Daisie packaged and shipped overseas. She was on the Board of the Victoria Musical Art Society, formed to provide a platform so that young musicians had an opportunity to perform before an audience. She was a very active member of the Women's Auxiliary of the Victoria Symphony, and was responsible for initiating, organizing and running a Symphony Thrift Shop—a very radical innovation at the time. This most successful venture raised thousands of dollars for the Symphony over the years. In recognition of her tireless efforts on behalf of the Symphony, she was made a Life Member of the Women's Auxiliary.
Daisie was married twice, to William Stokes and then to Harold Thirlwall in the 1930s. She had two children, John.and Lillian Stokes. Lillian died in 1967, survived by a daughter, Veronica (nee Milton) Wagner, who plays viola with the Vancouver Symphony. John has two children, a son and a daughter. Daisie's cousin, Mrs. K. M. Paulin, remembers Daisie as "a very warm and happy person, a great organizer, lots of fun to be with, and a great hostess and cook". Mrs. Paulin recalls that Daisie was very family oriented, that her house at 302 Moss Street was always full of guests of all ages, and that she was constantly involved in activities with children, even assisting with the cooking at a children's camp. She always welcomed family and friends to her cottage at Shawnigan Lake.
Because of her life-long love of music, Daisie directed (in her will) that a fund be made with the Victoria Foundation to provide scholarships for students in the Faculty of Music at the University of Victoria, preferably for those playing string instruments.